lOO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 446 



SEA-SIOKNESS.' 



Sea-sickness is one of those minor miseries of existence for 

 which there appears to be no cure. Many have been loudly 

 trumpeted, but none have really succeeded in susceptible persons. 

 As a matter of fact very little serious study has been given to the 

 subject; persons who do not suffer are apt to despise those who do, 

 and persons who do suffer are too glad to forget their misery to 

 be disposed to give any thought to its source. Professor Rosen- 

 bach of Breslau has recently published a small monograph, the 

 outcome of observations and study of the phenomena of sea-sick- 

 ness extending over ten years. He gives his experiences in the 

 form of a thesis, which he uses as the basis of his explanations 

 and arguments as to the nature of the disease. 



His argument of facts is as follows: 1. The malady commences 

 as soon as the vessel pitches, that is, rotates on its transverse axis., 

 2. The rolling, that is, rotation on its long axis, is less severe, but 

 the combination of the two is very unfavorable. 3. The phenom- 

 ena appear more quickly and are more severe the farther the 

 patient is from the middle of the ship. Persons sleeping are at- 

 tacked, also small children and animals. In small boats without 

 sails very sensitive persons may be affected ; when sails are used 

 sickness is more likely to occur. 4. A moderate amount of food 

 in the stomach and a small quantity of alcohol is more likely to 

 act as a preventive than an empty stomach. 5. The horizontal 

 position on the deck acts in some degree as a preventive. 6. 

 Anxiety and apprehension precede sickness ; a certain exhibition 

 of energy and resolution may in short voyages and with slight 

 vessel motion control the tendency to sickness. Soft winds (for 

 example, sirocco), strong odors, etc., are unfavorable. 7. There 

 are two categories of the affection dependent on individual pre- 

 disposition ; in one the head, in the other the abdomen is principally 

 affected. Cases where both are affected are common. 



In regard to intensity: (a) Some women begin to feel uneasy 

 from the beginning of the voyage, in perfectly smooth conditions 

 of the surface; they are pale, and have no appetite. There is a 

 certain dread also. It is questionable if they are cases of sea-sick- 

 ness. Perhaps they represent the purely psychical form. (6) In 

 another variety there is a general irritation of the nervous system 

 during the whole voyage. The digestive organs are unfavorably 

 affected, (c) This series forms a transitional variety. Slight mo- 

 tions of the vessel affect sensitive persons and produce sickness 

 with general loss of appetite, indisposition to move or speak, and 

 painful sensations in the head or abdomen. These symptoms are 

 a delicate reagent to the disturbing action of the vessel. 



As to the theories of the disease, they are arranged under three 

 heads: 1. The psychical theory (so named by the author), accord- 

 ing to which all the symptoms are produced through the action 

 of certain sensory organs upon the consciousness, giving rise to 

 uncomfortable or unwonted sensations or disturbed equilibrium. 

 2. The theory of disturbed equilibrium, according to which the 

 permanent disturbances of equilibrium act as painful irritations to 

 the contents of the skull and of the abdomen, and are thus the 

 causes of the phenomena. 3. The theory of the disturbance of 

 the circulation, according to which the disturbances of equilibrium 

 and the swinging motions of the body produce circulatory dis- 

 turbances in certain parts. 



As regards the psychical theory, the arguments generally ad- 

 duced in its favor are: 1. That the sight of the pitching vessels 

 and of the up and down motions of the vessel favor the occurrence 

 of sickness. 2. That the abnormal effects do not occur with the 

 eyes shut. 3. That sleepers generally escape. This conclusion the 

 author rejects, for he states that energetic will and closure of 

 the eyes do not quite succeed in warding off the attack. 



The action of visual disturbances in inducing the sickness he 

 considers very important, but only secondary as factors in the re- 

 sult. That the sufferers may be roused from sleep in a full paroxysm 

 of the attack ; that children at the breast and young children suffer, 

 though less than adults; and that horses, who in their boxes do 

 not see the movements, also suffer — these facts prove, the author 

 states, that the external mechanica' influences alone must be the 

 cause of the sickness. These facts, on which the author seems to 



1 From tlie Brltlsli Medical Journal. 



rely for his conclusions as to the secondary importance of visual 

 disturbances, if in themselves correct, do not appear to demon- 

 strate that visual disturbances were absent in the cases mentioned, 

 and it is to be remarked that in a note the author speaks of closure 

 of the eyes or avoidance of the sight of the mast aed bulwarks of 

 the ship as being of great assistance in preventing the attack. 



The third theory — that of circulation-disturbances — the author 

 rejects. The second theory is particularly developed, and the 

 disturbing effects of various kinds of unwonted improvement are 

 described and analyzed. Thus, it is shown that backward travel- 

 ling may produce illness, pains, even vomiting. The motion in 

 swings, the effects of circular motion, are next described. The 

 effects of rapid upward or downward motion have been particu- 

 larly experimented on by the author in the rapidly-moving Ameri- 

 can elevators. The author thinks that he has discovered a new 

 and substantial explanation of the action of external movement 

 impulse by the phenomena observed in rapid elevators. It is found 

 that in ascending with the eyes closed, no noise being heard, there 

 is experienced a peculiar feeling at the epigastrium which goes off 

 during the rise, say, of four or five floors, but reappears the mo- 

 ment the elevator stops. The same thing occurs when the elevator 

 moves downwards, the sensation being felt only at the outset and 

 on the arrest of the motion. In the motion of the elevator there 

 occurs a sudden movement and sudden arrest of the movement, 

 and the effect of this in producing the epigastric disturbance is 

 held to be analogous to the effect of the motion observed in the 

 vessel at sea. This explanation furnishes a theory which the 

 author accepts, because it covers the ground to the necessary ex- 

 tent. Further, the author is led to the conclusion that the com- 

 plex symptoms of sea-sickness are due to the molecular disturbances 

 produced by rapid movements arising from sudden change of di- 

 rection of the motion, whereby a severe intramolecular shaking 

 and irritation primarily acting on the cells and the protoplasm of 

 particular organs is produced. 



The immediate transition from one movement to another move- 

 ment in a different direction is assumed to be the cause of the 

 disturbances experienced. Thus the painful sensations in sea-sick- 

 ness, in the act of swinging, in the oscillation liable to occur in 

 rapid railway journeys, agree in this, that the peculiar symptoms 

 of irritation, the distressing feeling at the epigastrium, the cold 

 sweats, the general feeling of illness, and the headache, appear at 

 the moment when the direction of the movement changes. 



As regards the cure of sea-sickness, the author considers that 

 the only real cure is "custom." He speaks favorably of certain 

 medicines as being often operative for very short sea voyages — 

 quinine, antipyrine, bromide salts, cocaine, morphine, chloral, and 

 other anaesthetics. He speaks with approval of the advice of older 

 writers that the horizontal position at mid-deck should be taken 

 before the voyage begins, and that a bandage should be tightly 

 placed over the liver, whereby the intensity of the motion is di- 

 minished, and a certain degree of fixation of the abdominal con- 

 tents promoted. 



Professor Bosenbach has made a most valuable and suggestive 

 contribution towards the solution of the much-vexed question as 

 to the nature and cause of sea-sickness ; and no doubt his views 

 will excite discussion calculated materially to advance our knowl- 

 edge of the subject. 



DIET AND ANIMAL TEMPERATURE. 



A QUESTION has been put to us by a correspondent, says the 

 Lancet, whether the animal temperature of persons who subsist on 

 a vegetable diet is lower than that in animal or mixed feeders. 

 The inquiry has never been investigated in the human species on 

 a sufficiently comprehensive scale to be of any value, but such 

 comparative facts as throw light on the matter tend to indicate 

 that vegetable feeders, among the lower creation, have a high 

 temperature. Dr. John Davy, brother of Sir Humphry, and one 

 of our keenest physiological observers of a past day, was among 

 the first to make comparative observations of the temperature of 

 different animals in their normal state; and to a certain extent 

 John Hunter, Pallas, Despretz, and Samuel Metcalfe carried out 

 the same research. In 1869 Dr. B. W. Richardson, in one of his 



